This started as a sketch of a sunset looking west from the 25th floor balcony of my friends’, Dan and Liz, condominium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The size of the paper was not very big, 12” X 14” I think. As soon as, I finished that sketch, I started on a second paper, the continuation to the north of the same scene, turning just a little to the right. After the second sketch I did a third and a fourth sketch each time moving a little to the right. By this time I was facing East! That was actually a couple days later, when I finished a long (over 4 feet) and narrow sketch in color. I took a few photographs of the different views, also looking down to the street and straight out towards the city and the sky. Using the long sketch, the photographs and my wonderful memories of our vacation, I decided to make a large painting of the same view.

The four panels painting is the largest I have painted in my realistic Linear style. (The largest painting I have ever painted is 22’ X 8’, a linear abstraction in 1984.) It took me almost 9 months to paint this view of Honolulu. Of course, this is an ‘in the studio’ painting and I also continued to teach and travel. In fact in the middle of this painting I had traveled to India. There I painted portraits, watercolors, and oils, and made 26 wood sculptures. I had a show of those works in Pune in September 2004. So the 9 months it took me to paint this represents studio time only.

In the studio the sketch developed into a painting. This metamorphosis is the most exciting part of the painting process. The sketch had the three different directions (east, north and west), right panel shows the east, the middle two, show the north and the left panel shows the west, with the ocean and the sunset. It rained in the east hills and the mountains, almost every morning. By the time the sun would come over the mountains the rainbows appeared, every day! By noon the Sun would be hot and bright and you could see for miles. The city of Honolulu and the mountains behind are visible in the top middle section of the two middle panels. The convention center (below center) with its landscaped roof is the focal point of the two middle panels. This roof is situated in a bowl type of arrangement. The towering hotels and the condominiums all around this low building make the perfect viewing of the roof. On the roof you can see the imitation of the land and the ocean around. The artificial sails tower over the roofline at one end. The waves and the beach are in ceramic tiles in the middle and the green pagoda like roof is the representation of the mountains and there is a three story tall, real waterfall by the entrance at the south entrance. At the bottom of the panel you can see the river, the street with the constantly parked cars, swimming pool below and Jessica and Emalie swimming in it. As you turn to the last panel on the left, you see the tall, beach side hotels and the sun setting behind them. A couple of freighters and a cruise ship are visible on the ocean, as a jumbo jet heavily lifts off above the setting sun’s orange rays.

Not only the view of the five different directions that I wanted to capture in one painting, but, I also wanted to show the three different times of the day, the morning, the noon and the evening. In reality with our eyes we can look towards only one direction at one time. You can not view five directions and three different times of the day in one view. The five different directions and the three different times of the day, are visible at the same time, only in my painting! (I have broken the barriers of time and peripheral vision.)